All Annual Report

First RCE Thematic Conference: Towards Achieving the SDGs

First RCE Thematic Conference: Towards Achieving the SDGs

5-7 December 2017, Okayama, Japan

For the past decade, Global RCE Meetings have been an opportunity for members to meet, and share ideas and best practices related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This trend will continue.

The idea of a Thematic Conference is to delve deeper into given areas of ESD, allowing us to focus the discussion on certain topics. During these events, with the help of other international frameworks, we can deliver training workshops and capacity building sessions, to address the specific needs of our network members in one overarching theme.

Various ESD-related themes exist within the scope of the Global RCE Network – all are now searchable on the RCE Portal.

This RCE Thematic Conference, hosted by RCE Okayama, will focus on three topics:

RCEs can share best practices and policies related to education on any of the three threads. Training workshops will give more insight on these topics, also from the perspective from various UN/International frameworks. Hopefully the conference will lead to more unity and cohesion between the different RCEs working in similar areas.

The conference will be divided into two components:

I. RCE Member generated content: RCEs will present their initiatives for one of the respective themes. RCE members will be asked to submit abstracts on their educational approach on a given topic. RCE abstracts will be submitted to the Secretariat and will be judged for acceptance by a panel of experts, which may include members of the Secretariat.

II. Content delivered by UN/International Platforms: This content will be used for capacity building purposes. These sessions aim to build a closer link between local stakeholders and global frameworks, linking the global sustainability agenda with RCE work at the local community level.

During the sessions, curricula will be shared and discussed, as well as strategy and potential engagement with policy makers. These sessions will be complemented with plenary sessions on sustainable development and progress of the Agenda 2030.

Registration
Registration for this event is now closed. Please contact the Global RCE Service Centre (rceconference@unu.edu) if you have any questions.

Case Presentation
Case presentations will take place during the Parallel Sessions I and II, on 5th of December. RCE members can present ongoing or future projects, relevant to one of the conference themes. Submissions for case presentations are now closed.

Selected speakers will be allotted 20 minutes during the sessions – 15 minutes for a presentation followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. Due to time constraints, we kindly ask all speakers to adhere to these allotted schedules. Presentations will have to be cut short, if they go over time. All presentations will be shared with the network via the RCE Portal, social media, and possibly video. Presentations should be prepared in power point.

The presentations will be used to prepare the proceedings of the conference. This can be in the form of a working paper, a policy brief, a curriculum toolkit, etc. This will be prepared in consultation with the coordinating UNU-IAS researcher. The case presentation / proceedings guideline will be shared in due course.

Poster Exhibition
If you wish to display a poster in the poster exhibition area, please contact RCE Okayama (kokusai@adm.okayama-u.ac.jp). They will provide more information on the requirements such as size, format, deadline, etc.

Financial Support
RCE members are encouraged to explore and obtain funding from sources other than UNU-IAS. This will help those without access to funding sources to participate in the conference. Financial support will be given to members of acknowledged RCEs ONLY. Applications for financial support are now closed.

Visa Support Request
Participants that require a visa to enter Japan, and are in need of support documents: Please submit Form B to the Global RCE Service Centre (rceconference@unu.edu) by 11:59PM, Sunday, 12 November 2017 (JST). Please make sure to apply for the visa well in advance.

A visa to Japan required by all nationals, except of nationals referred to ‘Exception of Visa’.